Celebration! Great Bear Rainforest protected

Vancouver, Canada — Greenpeace is celebrating an enormous success—the protection of the Great Bear Rainforest. The government of British Columbia has announced the implementation of the most comprehensive rainforest conservation plan in North American history for the Great Bear Rainforest.

This celebration is a direct result of a decade-long campaign — one of the longest in Greenpeace history. The conservation plan protects the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest on the planet. Around the world, it is being hailed as a model for conservation; a “greenprint” for other nations to learn from. A rainforest protected In 2006, British Columbia’s Premier Gordon Campbell promised the world he would protect the Great Bear Rainforest for future generations and to improve the well-being of local communities living in the rainforest.

Those promises have now been realized.

Since 2006, Greenpeace and its partners Sierra Club BC and ForestEthics have been working with logging companies, the B.C. government and First Nations to make the agreement a reality by March 31, 2009, a deadline set by Premier Campbell to make good on his 2006 promise. Now that the promise is a reality:

* 2.1 million hectares is now legally protected from logging; * New ‘lighter touch’ logging regulations, based on Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM), is now a legal requirement. This system maintains 50 per cent of the natural level of old growth forest of the region or an additional 700,000 hectares of forest set aside from logging.

What this all means is that an area of the forest almost the size of Belgium is now completely off limits to logging. A huge victory by any measure!

Thanks to Greenpeace supporters

Greenpeace supporters from across Canada and around the world have been instrumental in this victory.

Thousands of letters were sent to the Premier of British Columbia over the past four months and over 4,000 people are members of the Great Bear Rainforest Facebook page.

Greenpeace published full-page ads encouraging B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell to keep his promise in several newspapers including the Vancouver Sun. Letters and phone calls from major purchasers of pulp, paper and lumber also poured in to ensure logging companies and the B.C. government kept the promise.

Support for First Nations

First Nation communities now have $120 million CDN available to them to help kick start a new conservation economy as an alternative to logging. The Great Bear Rainforest is the traditional territory of 25 First Nations that have lived in the region for millennia. This announcement will support the creation of new sustainable economic opportunities for First Nations. The long journey

The historic announcement is built on a decade-long struggle to secure the future of Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest.

British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest has been a site of global controversy, environmental protest and widespread international media interest since 1995.

Greenpeace and its partners demanded an end to destructive logging in the Great Bear Rainforest. Our efforts culminated in critical pressure on forest product customers. Over 80 companies, including Ikea, Home Depot, Staples and IBM, committed to stop selling wood and paper products made from ancient forests. This marketplace pressure drove logging companies to sit down and negotiate with environmentalists. Meanwhile, key valleys in the rainforest were protected from logging while discussions took place.

The main goals of our campaign were to protect the most important areas of the Great Bear Rainforest, change logging practices and support a sustainable future for local communities.

Sophisticated campaign

To make these goals a reality, Greenpeace, along with ForestEthics and Sierra Club BC, employed a sophisticated campaign that involved protests, market engagement, government lobbying and civic action, participation in government-sponsored land-use forums, and negotiations with the coastal logging industry.

More to do

Everyone involved in achieving this major milestone agrees that there is more work to do before achieving the overall goals of ecosystem integrity and human well-being.

Greenpeace, other environmental groups, the B.C. government, forest industry and First Nations have endorsed a five-year plan that will achieve the long-term goals of low ecological risk and high quality of life in communities by 2014. Global model

This is arguably one of the most comprehensive and complex land management regimes ever worked on and as such, there has been no existing road map to follow. But through the many twists and turns this process has taken we can now see a destination — one where the Great Bear Rainforest will continue to provide a home and sustenance to all manner of life.

The Great Bear Rainforest agreements are truly unique: they work to ensure the ongoing health of not just the forest, but also the climate and the economy. Now more than ever, a global model such as this one provides a beacon of hope that meaningful collaboration and resolution can be found through conflict.

For more on the Great Bear Rainforest victory, read personal accounts by Scott Paul, forest campaign director at Greenpeace USA and by Tamara Stark, communication director at Greenpeace UK and former forest campaigner in Canada.

Blog post or Press Release?
Reads mostly like the official org word on a press release. Congrats on contributing to the successful agreement, though it'd be far more interesting and engaging to learn about the efforts from a campaigner or active volunteer's perspective. What was it like working toward this goal?
We can visit the Greenpeace Press Centre anytime but we need to hear the voice of the 'people' -- that's what is motivating and inspiring. Otherwise, there's no reason for us to come here and read or for you to write. Let's not waste energy, instead add some value and put our efforts to challenges like this recently won.

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Kevin
says:

The post about UBC forestry professor George Hoberg says that Greenpeace failed to get the 70% protection it asked for, only got 50%. I think the post by Greenpeace should be more revealing about the details (and what the maps mean), and a bit less like a corporate public relations press release. Still, given the economic crisis which is being used to justify all kinds of nonsense, it's still a big success, and worth celebrating.

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Kevin
says:

For more details on the maps and protected areas please refer to:
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/GBR-victory-webstory
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/image_full/canada/en/photos-and-video/latest/great-bear-rainfores-map-2009.jpg
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/image_full/canada/en/photos-and-video/latest/great-bear-rainforest-map-2005.jpg

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Kevin
says:

I wish to thank Greenpeace and the many many enviros that have contributed their time and effort to achieve success in the creation of the great bear rainforest reserve.
Many thanks to the dedicated scientists , biologists, who worked up in the rainforest studying the web of life and to document the biodiversity which abounds in this coastal temperate rainforest, my congratualtions to:
all peoples of the world who took interest in saving the grizzly bears last vestige on earth.